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Friday, May 4, 2012

A Treatise on Matt. 5:22-24—Part 3—Calling Another a Fool

"But I say to you
that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court;
and whoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca,' shall be guilty before the
supreme court; and whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go
into the fiery hell. If therefore you
are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother
has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go
your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your
offering." (Matt. 5:22-24 NAS)

In this article we will
be dealing with the last of the 3 declarations or warnings Jesus gave as found
in Matt. 5:22 regarding man's attitude and speech toward his fellowman. Jesus says that to say to one's fellowman
"you fool" puts him in danger of going to hell itself. That is a frightful thought to think that the
words out of one's mouth are enough to condemn a man for eternity and yet the
Bible teaches that.

"You brood of vipers, how can you, being
evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the
heart. The good man out of his good
treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure
brings forth what is evil. And I say to
you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account
for it in the day of judgment. For by
your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned."
(Matt. 12:34-37 NAS)

It is important that we
remember what was just quoted. If we did
so we would be slow to speak thinking about our words before they leave our
mouths. We would not just blather out
thoughtlessly the very first words that come to mind. James tells us, "Let every one be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger."
(James 1:19 NAS) Words not spoken have
never caused trouble nor ever condemned a man.
Words spoken that would have been best left unspoken have resulted in
murders, hatred, anger, strife, bitterness, and condemnation before God.

For the moment I want to
put emphasis on what Jesus said in Matt. 12 quoted above when he said, "For the mouth speaks out of that which fills
the heart." (Matt. 12:34 NAS) Elsewhere
Jesus said, "Out of the heart come
evil thoughts." (Matt. 15:19 NAS)
It is the pure in heart that shall see God (Matt. 5:8). It is the heart that loves God and loves man
that is blessed with eternal life and happiness. "He
who does not love abides in death." (James 3:14 NAS)

The words we direct to
our fellowman are a reflection of how our heart feels towards the one to whom
we speak. Do we love him/her? Are we kind to the person, compassionate,
caring? The words that roll off our
tongue are a reflection of the inner attitude we have toward that individual.

To call a man a fool
reflects the speaker's heart and lack of love.
Even if he was right about the man to whom he was speaking and that man
was indeed a fool it would not get the speaker off the hook for violating the
law of love toward one's fellowman.

The Greek word
translated "fool" in Matt. 5:22 has been and is highly debated as to
its exact meaning. You and I know what
the English meaning of the English word fool is without being told but is that
what the Greek meant and that is the debated question.

Most of the old
commentators I consulted (Barnes, Clarke, and Gill) believe it means a wicked
reprobate man. Gill says, "The word 'fool' does not signify a man of weak parts, one that is very
ignorant in things natural; this the word Raca imports; but a wicked reprobate
man; in which sense Solomon often uses the word. The Persic version renders it
here 'wicked'." (Gill's Commentary) The translation notes from the NET Bible say, "The meaning of the
term…is
somewhat disputed. Most take it to mean, following the Syriac versions, 'you
fool,' although some have argued that it represents a transliteration into
Greek of the Hebrew term…'rebel.'"
Young's Literal Translation uses the word "rebel" rather than
the word "fool."

Be
all that as it may Matt. 5:22 makes it clear that God has not relinquished his
right to be God and handed that right over to me to make me the judge and make
proclamation over others. When I call
someone a fool I have proclaimed that I myself am not a fool and I am able to
judge others for I am superior. I know
these things and you don't is the idea and I know because I am superior. It is pride and it is arrogance and it is the
placing of oneself on God's judgment seat.

Now
is it true there are no fools on the earth?
Not if the Bible is true for there are many who have no belief in God's
existence. David by inspiration of the
Holy Spirit said, "The fool has said
in his heart, 'There is no God.'" (Psalms 14:1, 53:1 NAS) The book of Proverbs speaks of fools time
after time (the word fool is mentioned in 40 verses in that book and the word
fools in 21 verses) and enough said about them we can learn quite a bit about
who is and who is not a fool.

God
has not asked us to be naïve and go around acting like we cannot discern
foolish things from things that are rational and he has certainly not asked us
to give up discerning righteousness from unrighteousness. We are not asked to be dummies and see no
evil and refuse to recognize evil or foolishness. We know there are evil men in the world; we
know there are foolish men in the world.
Jesus in the New Testament addressed a certain class of men as "fools and blind men." (Matt. 23:17
NAS) Paul did the same thing in Rom.
1:22. We are told by Solomon, "Do not be a fool." (Eccl. 7:17
NAS) Surely we can know what foolishness
is.

That
does not mean, however, that we are to take God's place and declare a man a
fool implying we are not. Have we not
all played the role of the fool at one or more points in time in our life? I doubt I could find a man who would deny it
if he has any honesty about himself at all.
If we are and always have been so perfect what need do we have for
Jesus? Paul said, "For we also once were foolish ourselves,
disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our
life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another." (Titus 3:3
NAS) We have no room to speak of others
as being foolish or fools.

While
the New Testament only uses the words fool and fools 3 times each in the New
American Standard Version (1977) it uses the word foolish in 25 different
verses. The first instance is found in
Matt. 7:26, "And everyone who hears
these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man,
who built his house upon the sand." (NAS) It is not hard to be foolish, just not
obeying the commands (one or more) of Jesus will do it. Jesus and Paul both spoke of foolish men and
foolish acts. One of the problems of the
man who is inclined to call his brother, his fellowman, a fool is his failure to
see he falls into the same category. His
disregard for Jesus' words spoken in Matt. 5:22 clearly places him in the
classification of being "a foolish man" according to Matt. 7:26.

What
is needed is mercy and grace, kindness and love, and taking the speck out of
our own eye. "And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do
not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your
eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will
see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." (Matt. 7:3-5
NAS)

There
is a "fiery hell." Jesus said
so in the passage before us and he told us of one personality headed
there. It is our choice as to whether or
not we make the decision to heed the teachings of Matt. 5:22 or disregard
them. There is a path that leads away
from the fiery hell. Jesus described it
when he said, "Therefore everyone
who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise
man, who built his house upon the rock.
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and
burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon
the rock." (Matt. 7:24-25 NAS)
That is the rock that is higher than I.

(See the prior two posts on the blog here for a discussion of the first two declarations Jesus made in Matt. 5:22. Also, if you are so inclined visit my web site, dennysmith.net, where I have around 170 full length articles and many audio sermons posted.)

Good Bible Study Sites

YouTube

I have gotten a lot of good out of listening to lectures by the following Christian apologists on YouTube. Like C. S. Lewis they deal little with doctrine, almost exclusively with apologetics. I am sure I would not agree with them on some issues of doctrine, in fact I know I don't, but they do a great job on apologetics.

Ravi ZachariasGary HabermasJohn LennoxMichael Ramsden

I could mention others I listen to but these men provide a good starting point. Just do a search on their names in YouTube's search engine to find their lectures.